A-fucking-men.ikellensbro said:Everyone who says this doesn't really affect anyone because they (suck and) are over 18, picture this:
You're in high school, and you want to see a movie. I probably wasn't alive back when you were a teenager or I was still crapping in diapers, so let's just say you wanted to go see Ace Ventura (hey, it was on TV today ). In that movie (Pet Detective), Ace gets 2 spears thrown at him, and even though it's funny and Ace doesn't really get hurt, you can't see the movie without someone else over 18 because the state you're watching this movie in thinks that your mind will be corrupted and you'll start throwing spears at anyone you see because it's funny.
Now that example was about a movie (which obviously taints your mind much less than the games), but what about actual games? Remember that really good game, The Legend of Zelda? In Arizona it may be rated E for everyone, but here in California, this game has the potential to make you start swinging swords and throwing bombs at other people. If you want this game you'll have to either have someone over 18 buy it for you or get it elsewhere, such as from a 6 year old who is legally allowed to buy it in Arizona.
You may just say 'What's another year for those little brats? They need to learn to wait sometime.' How would you have liked not being able to drive for another year in high school? How would you have liked to not be able to drink (legally, duh) until you were 21 (or 19 if you're from Canada)? How would it feel to have to wait another year to get a piece of software/hardware/etc. that you have the money already saved up for, but it's not legal for you to buy it? For all you boomers, what's another year of waiting for retirement?
Eventually my parents should come around and realize that I've played hundreds of hours of CS, Diablo2, Farcry, etc. that I got as gifts, and have not yet shot anyone or made any living animal explode into a pile of blood and guts. Until then, If I have to, I'll just get other people at my high school to buy the games for me, or even go drive over to Arizona once I get my license and buy the next Zelda over there because it won't be legal for me to buy it under the law my Governator so stupidly signed.
For those who think this means nothing, these laws are setting precedents to let the government to control more and more of your life, wether you like it or not. There could have been a lot more time spent fixing California like the legislators are supposed to be getting paid for doing, if the new law was simply a $1000 fine for selling an M-rated game to someone under 17. Short, simple, to the point, and the ratings system is already in place. As for the ESRB rating games appropriately, if Titanic were a game with all the naughtiness as the movie, it would be rated AO. If Return of the Sith: the game was as graphic as the movie, it would be rated M.
Jack Thompson could probably get more money and innocent verdicts by correctly blaming/suing the parents of the messed up kids who play GTA for a minute in a store and say it caused them to blow up the police station.